Prey on the prowl a crime novel

Prey on the Prowl – A Crime Novel
BS Murthy
ISBN 81-901911-4-4
Improved Edition © 2021 BS Murthy
Original copyright © 2014 BS Murthy
Cover design of Gopi’s water color painting by Lattice Advertisers, Hyderabad.
F-9, Nandini Mansion,
1-10-234, Ashok Nagar,
Hyderabad – 500 020
Other books by BS Murthy –
Benign Flame – Saga of Love
Jewel-less Crown - Saga of Life
Crossing the Mirage – Passing through youth
Glaring Shadow - A stream of consciousness novel
Of No Avail: Web of Wedlock (A Novella)
Stories Varied - A Book of Short Stories
Onto the Stage – Slighted Souls and other stage and radio plays
Puppets of Faith: Theory of Communal Strife
Bhagvad-Gita: Treatise of self – help (A translation in verse)
Sundara Kãnda - Hanuman’s Odyssey (A translation in verse)
Agenda for Revenge
Chapter 1: Prey on the Prowl
Chapter 2: Shakeel’s Fixation
Chapter 3 : Ranjit’s Predicament
Chapter 4 : Rags to Riches
Chapter 5 : Dhruva’s Dilemma
Chapter 6: The Gatecrasher
Chapter 7: Operation Checkmate
Chapter 8: Foul on Pravar
Chapter 9: Stockholm Syndrome
Chapter 10: An Aborted Affair
Chapter 11: Psyche of Revenge
Chapter 12: Victim of Trust
Chapter 13: Backyard of Life
Chapter 14: Cuckoo’s Nest
Chapter 15: ‘Untried’ Crime
Chapter 16: Kavya’s Quagmire
Chapter 17: Murders to Mislead
Chapter 18: The Other Woman
Chapter 19: Shakeel’s Demise
Chapter 20: A Perfect Murder
Chapter 21: Deaths in Spandan
Chapter 22: Arraigned in Remand

Chapter 23: Depressing Discovery
Chapter 24: The Red Herring
Chapter 25: Wages of Abuse
Chapter 26: Decoding the Crime
Chapter 27: A Poignant End
Dedicated to all those women,
whose loving glances have made
my life’s journey a joyous sojourn.
Chapter 1
Prey on the Prowl
That June evening, the crimson sun gave in to the dark monsoon clouds to let them
end its long summer reign over the Deccan skies. What with the thickening clouds
thundering in triumph, Detective Dhruva woke up from his siesta, and by the time he
moved into the portico of his palatial bungalow at 9, Castle Hills, the skies had opened
up to shower its sprawling lawns. It was as if the eagerness of the rainfall matched the
longing of the parched soil to receive its fertile mate in an aroma of embrace, and in the
ensuing echoes of that seasonal union, the roots of the garden plants devoured every
raindrop, that is, even as their leaves shed the overburden to accommodate the new
arrivals.
In that setting, as Dhruva, impelled by all that, stood engrossed, Raju, the
housekeeper, fetched him a plateful of hot pakodas, which, facing the spatter, he began
to savor, and before he had finished with the snack, Raju returned with a mug of
steaming Darjeeling tea for him. Soon, as the refreshed sun resurged to warm up the
leaves, even as the satiated roots let the bounty go down the drain; done with the
beverage, the detective picked up the sachet of lanka pogaku to roll a cigar, and then as
he reached for the cigar lighter, the rainbow, in its resplendent colors, unfolded in the
misty skies. However, when he began puffing away at the exotic cigar, as if dispelled by
its strong scent, the dissipated clouds began disappearing from the horizon.
Having savored the cigar to the last puff, as he stubbed the butt and stepped out
onto the lush green wet lawn, Dicey, the Alsatian, followed him, as if to leave its own
footprints on the damp canvas in its master’s tracks. Then, even as the rainy clouds
began regrouping in the skies, he covered the garden to caress every croton and coleus
as he would his pet. But when it portended downpour, Raju led Dicey into the portico
and the detective headed towards the study to pick up the half-read Crimes Digest of
the month.
But yet again, as it was a downpour, Dhruva reached the first-floor window,
standing by which, he thought that it was akin to the urge of an assassin to revisit the
scene of the crime, for a review of the same. Amused by his analogy, he thought the sky
was at obliterating its earlier footprints on the earth, but when it ceased raining and it
turned murky, as if mourning the loss of its resplendence, he too began immersing
himself in the dark world of crime the Digest pictured, even as Raju let the pet do the
patrolling of the premises.
Soon though, Dicey began barking at the gate, again inducing Dhruva to reach to the
window, through which he saw a sensuous woman, tentative at the half-open Iron Gate
of his mansion. Enamored of her attractive face and desirous of her middle-aged frame,
as he stood rooted, the pet sprang up to the gate, forcing the tantalizing trespasser to
beat a hasty retreat. No less affected by her sensual gait in her retreat, the detective

lost his eyes to her, until she went out of his sight, but readily alive to her loss, he cursed
himself for not sticking to the portico. Thus, obsessed with her, though, inexplicably, he
rushed to the gate, only to see her turning the bend, even as Inspector Shakeel came
into view on his Bajaj Pulsar.
When the cop greeted the detective, feeling lost, he forced himself to hug him, even
as his pet leapt up to the visitor in welcome; however, as Raju took away Dicey,
wondering aloud what made him scarce, for nearly three months then, Dhruva led
Shakeel into the portico. So, as the cop began to detail how he had reached the dead-
end of a double murder investigation on hand, the detective closed his eyes, as if to
avoid reading the script from his body language.
Chapter 2
Shakeel’s Fixation
That day, when Shakeel entered the Saifabad Police Station, he was greeted by the
echoes of the boots-in-attention but as he stepped into his cabin, as if calling stand-at-
ease, the telephone had started ringing. However, after attending the Circle Inspector’s
call, as he opened the dak folder, the Head Constable Karim, carrying the news of a
double murder, rushed up to him.
“Where was it?” asked Shakeel.
“Last night sir at 13, Red Hills,” said Karim.
“Are you sure about our jurisdiction?” asked Shakeel, who was newly posted there.
“Very much, sir,” said Karim unable to hide his irritation as if the question questioned
his procedural knowledge.
“Who’re the dead?”
“Man and his mistress, sir.”
“What if it’s a suicide pact?”
“No sir, they could’ve been poisoned by the man’s wife.”
“What makes you think so?”
“Pravar told me, sir?”
“Who’s he by the way?”
“He’s the dead woman’s brother, sir.”
“What else did he say?”
“He said that Radha the murderess is on the run ever since.”
“Let me see how long she can evade me,” said Shakeel, getting up.
“Not long enough, sir,” said Karim stepping aside.
When the duo entered the drawing room of that dwelling at 13, Red Hills, Pravar had
drawn their attention to two empty glasses and a half-empty Teacher’s Scotch bottle on
the teapoy, with kaara boondi for company. When Shakeel surveyed the scene there,
Pravar ushered them into the adjacent bedroom, where Madhu and Mala lay dead on a
double cot bed. Soon, as the forensic squad, present by then, was at work, providing
Radha’s photograph to Shakeel, Pravar made out a case of her poisoning the couple.
Leaving the corpses to Karim’s care, when Shakeel returned to the police station with
the suspect’s photograph, he was surprised to find her there ‘to aid the investigation’.

But in spite of her pleas of innocence, Shakeel, influenced by Pravar’s assertions, could
not but see her hand in the double murder, and so arraigned her as the sole suspect.
Not only that, even though his sustained custodial interrogation failed to crack her,
believing in her guilt, so as to extracting her confession, he brought every police trick up
his sleeve into play, including the third degree, but to no avail. Eventually however, he
had to set her free, owing to the judicial intervention, but yet he failed to free himself
from his sense of failure to pin her down to the murder of her man and his mistress. As
he was cut up thus, seeing Dhruva’s ad in The Deccan Chronicle for a ‘lady sleuth to
assist him', he had a premonition that she might try to secure the position to insulate
herself. So as to preempt her move, he had set out that evening to 9, Castle Hills, even
in that inclement weather.
While Dhruva was grappling with that sum and substance of Shakeel’s recollection of
the bygone incident, the cop said in a lighter vein that if she were to come under the
detective’s wings, it could as well portend a romantic opening for him in his middle-age.
“When you began, I too thought that a murderess on the run makes an ideal prey to
any womanizing cop like you that is from what I’ve heard of you” said Dhruva jocularly;
and then assuming a serious look he wanted to know from the cop if he had noticed a
pretty woman at the bend. But picking up Shakeel’s blank look, Dhruva said in jest that
he had expected the cop to have an eye for women, if not an ear to the underworld.
And to Dhruva’s light-hearted banter, Shakeel said that though he fancied himself as a
womanizer, from what he had heard about him, he was no match to him. Dismissing all
that as exaggerated hearsay, the detective led the cop into the study, where the latter
poured out the problems the death of Madhu, and Mala posed to the investigation.
On Pravar’s account, Madhu was hell-bent on divorcing Radha and that would have
left her in the dire stairs; won’ that be an enough motive, apart from her rivalry with the
other woman, to poison her man and his mistress. Never mind her alibi that she was
away with her friend when the illicit couple drank the poisoned liquor to their death,
won’t her possible means to poison the drink make her the prime suspect. So her
motive to murder them made it an open-and-shut case; there was no difficulty in
guessing that after somehow poisoning the drink, she might have picked up a quarrel
with them as an excuse to leave them in a huff. But yet for Shakeel, her alibi had
become a big hurdle for him to cross over to pin her down, more so as she withstood
the sustained interrogation and came out clean in the lie-detector test as well!
Unable to hide his admiration for the unknown woman, when Dhruva said as to how
such a steely woman could have allowed herself to be so ill-treated, Shakeel said what
if, as a wounded tigress, she prowled on its prey in the garb of a lamb. With the
detective evincing a keen interest in the perplexing case, the relieved cop savored the
hot pakodas that Raju had fetched, all the while detailing his investigation that led him
nowhere. However, when he ended his account by stating that the old guard, Appa Rao,
told him that Radha reminded him of Mithya, whom Dhruva could not bring to book, the
detective, with a perceptible change in his demeanor, dismissed it as learning curve. But
as Shakeel persisted with the topic, Dhruva said that it was better they skipped it for it
involved a dead woman, and when Raju served them some Darjeeling tea, he changed
the topic to the politics of the day that was after committing himself to solving the
intriguing case.
Long after Shakeel had left him, Dhruva, having delved into his memory bank, was at
fathoming the perplexing present.
Could the trespasser be the murderess after all! But then, given his focus on her,
surely, if indeed it were she, Shakeel wouldn’t have failed to spot her from a mile, even
though the weather was foggy for a proper sight. And in spite of her compelling face, he

himself might fail to recognize her if he were to espy her again before the contours of
her exquisite frame would have turned hazy in his memory. Was it possible that she was
indeed innocent save Shakeel’s silly theories; if it were indeed Radha, what had brought
her to his gate; did she, as the cop thought, came to seduce him so as to stall Shakeel’s
future maneuvers? If it were so, why should she have been so tentative to begin with
only to beat a hasty-retreat in the end? Could she be as ingenuous as Mithya though she
seemed as seductive; would history repeat itself after all? Well, only time would tell; he
thought.
Even as he seemed to love the idea of the trespasser being the alleged murderess, a
restive Dicey went up to him making him wonder whether it sensed his distraction from
its dead mistress. Soon though, he changed into his shorts and took the pet for a stroll in
the twilight, by which time the drains got cleared to let the roads wear a fresh look to
glisten under the newly lit streetlights. However, as the roadside trees were set to dry
up themselves, the pet and its master got wet, and with the chilly winds too making it
uneasy for them, as Dicey turned its tail homewards, Dhruva led it home, where Raju
said that someone was waiting for him in the anteroom.
Chapter 3
Ranjit’s Predicament
As Dhruva stepped into the anteroom, he came face to face with a handsome man
with an anxious face that bore the apprehensions of one who feared for the life and
limb of a dear one. When the visitor introduced himself as Ranjit, the owner of the Oasis
Builders, assessing the middle-aged man as self-assured, Dhruva gave him a questioning
look. But as Ranjit said that he came to seek his help in freeing Kavya, his thirty-six-year-
old wife, kidnapped that very afternoon, Dhruva said in jest that he was not in cohorts
with the kidnappers. Hiding his irritation, as Ranjit told him that his ad for a ‘lady sleuth’
had led him to the Castle Hills, Dhruva in wonder led him into the study, where Raju
fetched them some steaming tea.
Ranjit said that he lives with his childless spouse in the Spandan, their bungalow in
Jubilee Hills; while he is an engineer, she has a L.L.B. added to M.A. in English, and yet at
his behest, she remained a homemaker for he was averse to a working wife. Of late
though, having become a bored housewife, as she was keen on becoming a criminal
lawyer, he didn’t stall her from enrolling at the Bar, and yesterday, as she chanced to
see Dhruva’s ad for a ‘lady sleuth’, she felt that a short stint as his ‘assistant’ could come
in handy in her career pursuit as a criminal lawyer. Aware though he was about the
hazards such an occupation posed, as there was no way of stopping her for once she
makes up her mind, there was no going back for her, damn the consequences. So, on
the way to his office, he posted her application for the post that very morning, of
course, without visualizing that by the evening, he would be seeking the advertiser’s
help in rescuing the applicant from her kidnappers! But as Ranjit said that he was unable
to fathom the vicissitudes of fate, the unexpected development made Dhruva ponder
over the imponderables of life.
As for the details, Ranjit said that as Kavya’s Alto was in the garage, she telephoned
him after lunch to know if he could spare his Audi for her to reach her friend’s place by
three-thirty; but given his own hopping schedule of the day, he asked her to be on her
own by hiring an auto. Nevertheless, when it started raining heavily by three, he
thought it fit to send her his car, so he tried to reach her over phone but as he failed to
connect with the land line as well as her mobile, he called up her friend, who told him
that she hasn’t reached there yet. When he realized that Kavya didn’t make it there
even at four, he rushed to Spandan, only to find a ransom note slipped in through the

main door, which warned him not to approach the cops. However, saying that as Dhruva
was fresh in his mind, he came to seek his help regardless, Ranjit handed over the
missive to him, which read:
Ranjitji, ensure your presence tomorrow evening at the Tanesha statue
on the Tank Bund from four to six in dark trousers and a white shirt to
convey your consent to pay three-crore rupees in thousand denominations
(less luggage, more comfort, for us all) to reclaim your wife. Thereafter, you
have only four days to exchange your black money with your bright wife; so
whenever you are ready with the money for the barter before the deadline
that is, be present at the Tanesha between five and eight in the evening
(mind the dress code) to take further instructions. But beware of involving
the khakis as that would only fetch you your wife’s body bag; it’s no empty
threat as you have her testimony hereunder. Also be warned, if you carry
any mobile phone with you, we will take the booty as well as your wife over
your dead body.
Yours expectantly,
Your wife’s captor
Testified by
Sd/-
Kavya Ranjit
When Ranjit confirmed that it was Kavya’s signature in that otherwise unsigned note,
as Dhruva secured it and said that they may better alert the cops, Ranjit said
sarcastically that for that instead of coming to the Castle Hills, he could have directly
gone to the Jubilee Hills Police Station. But as Dhruva sternly retorted that he saw a case
to apprehend him as the prime suspect in his wife’s kidnap, Ranjit lost his cool and
demanded an explanation for the accusation. By way of response, the detective said
nonchalantly that since there was no way for Ranjit to receive the ransom note with his
wife’s signature on it, within an hour or so after her alleged kidnap, he should be put
under the scanner above all else. Unnerved though by the proposition but appreciating
Dhruva’s mental acumen and eye for detail, Ranjit confessed that preoccupied with his
official chores, he not only failed to track Kavya’s whereabouts after his call to her friend
at four but also reached home late in the evening, and added that he just tried to test
the waters before he entrusted the case to him.
As though to outsmart Ranjit, Dhruva turned naughty and said that since Kavya’s
signature was genuine, it indeed was a good news; but as Ranjit seemed lost at the
comment, lest he should take him for a cynic, Dhruva explained that if it were a forgery,
it would have meant that the captors were out to barter her body for the booty. Then
Ranjit, who remained apprehensive, said what if Kavya was bumped off after having
obtained her signature, Dhruva had assured him that the kidnappers were no morons to
harm her as he wouldn’t part with a farthing until he had ensured that she was kicking
and alive. However, as Ranjit expressed his fears about his wife’s possible molestation in
captivity, Dhruva assured him that when a man kidnaps a woman for ransom, his lure
for money would act as her chastity belt; moreover, as the handwriting in the missive
betrayed a feminine slant, the captor was either a woman or a male with a female
accomplice, possibly a lover; if the kidnapper were to be a woman, then there may be
no violation but for a lesbian aberration, and were it to be a man-woman enterprise,
then any male enthusiasm for Kavya’s possession would have to contend with the
female proclivity of his accomplice to stall the same; whatever, the idea of kidnap could
be to collect ransom from the man and not to molest his wife.

When Dhruva wanted to know Ranjit’s financial position to pay the ransom, just in
case its inevitable, he said that he came to seek his help as he did not have so much
money to cough up, and that prompted Dhruva to say in jest that he was no
moneylender; but as Ranjit offered to pay him half a million to bust the kidnappers,
Dhruva said that it might come in handy as and when he handled the cases of the ‘hand
to mouths’. At that as Ranjit offered to take Dhruva to the Spandan, but in an auto for
he made it to the Castle Hills by changing into a couple of them via a circuitous route,
patting him for his presence of mind, Dhruva led him to his Esteem, and on their way to
the Jubilee Hills in the snarling traffic, Ranjit narrated his life and times with his wife.
Chapter 4
Rags to Riches
Kavya, a child prodigy, was the only offspring of a financially hard-pressed couple
from Kovvur, on the banks of the Godavari. As her parents went to lengths to groom her
well, she began to live up to their expectations, and that prompted them to shift to
Hyderabad to cater to her big-ticket talent. While her father became a clerk in a real
estate firm, her mother took to catering for a couple of working women’s hostels, she
strained her every nerve to top the school. But coinciding with her entry into the
college, her father ventured into the real estate business, which by the time of her
graduation in arts, grew into Oasis Builders.
Soon, her parents made her marriage their dining table-talk; her mother, wanting her
daughter to have a better start than she herself had, was bent upon a well-heeled
groom, but her father, still smarting from the snubs of his poor-groom days, vowed to
give her hand to ‘a promising nobody with a potential to become somebody’, as he put
it. Un-enamored of riches, as Kavya sided with her father, he soon zeroed in on Ranjit,
and bowled by his looks, she batted for him against her mother’s objections. However,
in deference to her mother’s wishes, she married Ranjit in Lord Balaji’s precincts at
Tirupathi, but sadly, in the return journey, as her parents were killed in a road mishap,
the Oasis Builders too landed in the groom’s ownership lap.
By the time Ranjit finished the recap of his life and times with Kavya, as they reached
Road No. 69 in the Jubilee Hills that leads up to the Spandan, Dhruva brought the
Esteem to a halt at the street corner. Letting Ranjit go down the desolate road, and
wanting to be alerted on the mobile just in case, the detective stayed back to see if
anyone waited in the wings. When it was all clear, Dhruva followed suit by focusing his
torch all the way on the road, and entering the compound, he observed the rain-
drenched pathway and said that Kavya had left home when it was still raining, and
might have unwittingly hired an auto-rickshaw, lying in wait for her.
Then stepping into the Spandan proper and having scanned the insides, when Dhruva
wanted to see Kavya’s photograph, Ranjit handed him her photo album; and struck by
her stunning features stunning looks, he felt that they could be the portrayals of her
fabulous persona. While envisioning the poise of the vivacious woman, who would have
become his assistant in the normal course, the detective wondered whether her
kidnapping would be the loss of his lifetime. But when the impropriety of holding on to
the album dawned on him, he handed it back to Ranjit with the assurance that she
would be back in her man’s arms before he started missing her.
Soon, revealing the opening moves of the Operation Checkmate to set Kavya free
from her kidnappers, and leaving Ranjit thereafter, Dhruva called up Shakeel, on his
mobile, wanting him to set the informers behind the usual suspects. However, as the
cop broached the topic of Radha, recalling the mysterious trespasser, the detective

wondered if the temptress was indeed a murderess and whether she would ever
venture into 9, Castle Hills or not might as well lie in her destiny.
Back home, after a quick shower, with his favorite Old Monk with Thums Up for
company, Dhruva began working on various moves of the endgame, and soon
succeeded in affecting a mental checkmate of Kavya’s captors. But, the thought that she
may not have any stomach left for the risky endeavors of a sleuth made him feel like he
was back to square one in his quest for a capable hand.
However, after an unappetizing dinner as he retired to bed thinking about both the
women in the same vein, he wondered if the woman ‘at the gate’ was indeed Radha,
and felt that it was difficult to imagine her as a murderess. He thought; if only Shakeel
had showed him her photograph that Pravar gave him, and wondered why he failed
seek it himself? But feeling that it won’t behoove well to ask for it afresh, he cursed his
lack of the presence of mind, but nevertheless thought that maybe, as a seductress,
Radha could rival Mithya but there could be no temptresses like Kavya for sure. Besides,
won’t Kavya be an invaluable asset even if she were half as cerebral as her husband
pictured her? When it suits him to have either Kavya or Radha to assist him, what a
bonus it could be if both of them joined him. Won’t it be real fun with both of them
around but given the attendant jealousies, it could as well be a hard grind for him. But
then, after all this mess, would she like to join him?
What with the myriad thoughts about them continued to storm his head; he had a
disturbed sleep that long night.
Chapter 5
Dhruva’s Dilemma
Waking up early and finishing his chores readily, Dhruva found himself in the portico,
fixing his stare at the gate, though wondering at his obsession for an unknown dame,
possibly a murderess. Having had his breakfast there itself, and weary after a long vigil
thereafter, as if he became wiser to the hopeless wait, he retreated into his study and
lost himself in fine-tuning the Operation Checkmate of Kavya’s captors. So, when Raju
appeared at the lunch-time, he wanted to have his meal in the study itself; and after his
prolonged siesta, grabbing the mail that was fetched to him, he found the expected
application from Kavya and an unexpected letter from one Radha Rani, C/o. Begumpet
Post Office.
‘How ingeniously inviting; is she the alleged murderess?’ he thought having read the
latter. ‘But then Shakeel was referring to her as Radha and not as Radha Rani; maybe he
gave a damn to the superfluous Rani, akin to the vainglorious suffix of Devi; but sans the
suffix, could this Radha be the real one or merely her namesake? Isn’t the duality of the
possibility intriguing, but whoever it is, can she be as good as Mithya where it matters?
But of what avail her eagerness if she were to be a plain thing; why won’t she spare me
the perils of attraction in the portals of proximity. At any rate, for man’s peace of mind
the serene presence of an un-alluring dame serves better than the flirty tempest of a
desirable woman. But then, sans the tumult of the heart, can there be life in life; oh,
how the absence of woman is killing!’
Given her eagerness for the job, Dhruva felt that waiting for his reply, Rani could be
right up there at the post office, and so he penned a call-letter post-haste and hurried
Raju on the errand wondering what the future had in store for him. However, seeing
Raju’s back, as he readily picked up Kavya’s post, he was amused at his fickle
mindedness for having given precedence to an unknown woman over someone he
fancied.

‘Added to the stream of boldness, isn’t there a strain of rashness to Kavya’s
persona?’ he thought folding her letter. ‘If not for the fiasco, wouldn’t she have filled
the gap that Mithya’s death had created in his professional life? Why foreclose the
option, as all it takes is to see that my interview call greets her on her return to her
Spandan, and who knows, after the dust settles down, she may not be averse to answer
my call. Whatever, Ranjit should be cautioned not to let her know about my
involvement in the Operation Checkmate for even if I were to click with Radha, nay Rani,
why shouldn’t Kavya provide the second string to my investigative bow? What if I fall in
love with her as well; so what, that would be the second one to the Cupid’s thing, what
a welcome prospect that could be? But then, why place the cart before the horse, or
horses to be precise, when life would take its own course anyway.’
When the clock struck four, attired in black trousers and a white shirt - Dhruva
thought of dressing like Ranjit, and be present nearby the Tanesha statue every day till
the D-day to let Kavya’s captors take him to be a regular - he stepped out of his abode
to step into an auto. Soon reaching the Tank Bund, and alighting from it at the Nannaya
statue, he walked up to the nearby Siddhendrayogi’s; and finding Ranjit at the
Tanesha’s, he himself settled nearby on the lush green lawns where with a book in
hand, and seemingly engrossed in it, he kept a hawk’s eye on the traffic and the passers-
by alike.
Then around five, a white Maruti Zen, driven by a twenty-something guy, slowed
down as it neared the Tanesha from the Ranigunj side, and before it was six, as that car
of Karnataka registration made two more rounds in like fashion, Dhruva thought the one
at the wheel could be the driving force behind Kavya’s kidnap. Since the suspect came
alone to pick up Ranjit’s signal of consent, the detective reasoned that his accomplice,
possibly the woman who penned the ransom note, might have held back holding Kavya
in captivity. Though he suspected that the Zen could be a stolen one, yet he called up
Shakeel to pass on the vehicle number, after which, he left the scene leaving Ranjit
alone.
Back home, as Dhruva awaited Rani’s expected arrival, Shakeel came to him seeking
his helping hand to close in on an inter-state counterfeit-note racket that came to the
fore just then. Though he was disinclined to leave home lest he should miss out on Rani,
if she were to show up, yet his proclivity to face professional challenges got the better
of his need for courting the woman he enamored; so, briefing Raju as to how to deal
with her, in case she turned up, he accompanied the cop to the Saifabad Police Station.
After burning a lot of midnight oil at the police station along with the cop, the
detective developed a blueprint of the Operation Moolah for the former to fine-tune its
logistical aspects; and thereafter as he reached home, fearing that he might have missed
the date with Rani, Raju informed him that none came to see him.
‘How I hoped this woman would fill in the void; am I flattered to be deceived?’ he
thought in all disappointment.
What with his obsession for Rani that accentuated the pain of his year-long loneliness
occasioned by Mithya’s death growing by the hour; he became pensive thinking that she
might have developed second thoughts about joining him. Soon though, as his thoughts
insensibly turned to Kavya, he felt that had Oscar Wilde espied her, perhaps he might
have paraphrased his smoking quote as an ode to her - the perfect example of a perfect
beauty - and began to wonder what would have happened had she, instead of being
kidnapped, made it to 9, Castle Hills.
Thus he spent the rest of the night imagining the possibilities till his tiredness
induced him into a deep sleep.

Chapter 6
The Gatecrasher
While Dhruva was still lounging in his bed, as Raju announced the arrival of a middle-
aged woman, wondering whether it could be Rani, he asked him to make her feel at
home in the study before he could meet her there. Thereafter, as Dhruva took his sweet
time to put his best foot forward, Raju began lifting him to the skies before her, but
when he heard approaching footsteps, he left the scene to make way for his master’s
entry.
Sensing the import of the moment, even as she stood up in all eagerness, realizing at
the threshold that she was the one he was craving for, ogling at her unabashedly as he
turned ecstatic in his approach, enamored of him, she turned coy, making him all the
more covetous. What’s more, as he advanced towards her, bowled by his masculinity,
and as if to quench their common thirst in the sands of lust, she too rushed to him as
one would towards an oasis in a desert. So, while he opened his arms impulsively,
parting her lips sanguinely, she sank into his arms amorously, and as if to cement their
union, he closed in on them passionately. Then, induced by his ardency, though her
femininity came to the fore, and his dream came true, she unlocked his lips, as if to
regain her breath. Thereby, as he crooned into her ears that ever since he saw her at the
threshold of his domain, he had a premonition that she would come back to him,
averring that she just tried to test the waters before venturing into the whirlpool of his
life, she reached for his lips all again.
Then, gripping her in his ardent embrace, when he asked her if she was Radha, the
alleged murderess, having crooned into his ear that she was Rani the man-eater, she bit
it coquettishly. Writhing in pain, as he told her that he fell in love with her as Radha the
killer, she said alluringly that she came for the kill and so he was better be on guard
against her ambush. But feigning alarm, as he withdrew from her, taking his arm
enticingly, as if to reassure him, she said that he might as well banish Radha from his
mind and engage her with single-mindedness; and as he hugged her endearingly, smug
in his embrace, she said coyly that she craved for a live-in with him. Then as he told her
in jest that he needed to take the consent of Raju and his wife Vimala, who attended on
him, she said teasingly that she would beseech them to ‘let her in’ so that she could ‘let
him in’. When he told her that it shouldn’t be a hassle for Raju was a retired constable
who was ever devoted to him, she said in half jest that she hoped to be blessed with a
like devotion from his master; and as if to demonstrate his intent, going down on his
knees and hugging her at her declivity, he assured her more of it. Thus enthralled by his
romanticism, as she lifted him to her bosom, he led her into his bedroom, where, giving
herself in coition, she goaded him on to their orgasm.
After a sensually fulfilling time followed by a sumptuous lunch, when he went into his
siesta, she left for her dwelling to fetch her belongings.
And for his part, waking up at three, he left for the Tank Bund, and as soon as he sat
with a book in hand at the Tanesha statue to monitor the moving vehicles, he cited a
blue Santro slowing down; noticing that it was the same guy who made rounds in the
white Maruti Zen the other day, he could discern his puzzled look at finding a different
character in the stipulated dress code there. However, at five, after making a couple of
rounds, as the explorer sped away towards Ranigunj, the intruder in satisfaction left the
place to reach home in anticipation.
Back home, as the thrill of finding Rani-in-wait seemed so reminiscent of his times
with Mithya, he told her how he looked forward to her filling the emotional void in his
lonely life. When she teased him that after having had his fill with her, he might as well
be craving for a refill with his dream girl Radha, leading her to the liquor-cabinet, he told

her that she might as well fathom his mind by keeping him high. Saying that she was a
game for it, she opted for the ‘ladies’ Gin when he offered her ‘manly’ Rum, and having
had a couple of drinks they ate Vimala’s ‘spicy’ preparations with great relish only to
rush into his bedroom. What with her company affording him a regular night for the first
time after Mithya’s demise; he had gone into deep sleep thinking about the regular day
to follow.
Waking up late and having had an exhilarating day with the doting live-in, in the
evening, he took her along with him to the Tank Bund, where she strolled around the
place and he sat near the Tanesha, waiting for the rigmarole to begin. When the guy,
this time in the white Maruti Zen, slowed down near him, he could clearly see that he
was puzzled by his presence that day as well. However, after making a couple of rounds,
as that chap drove away for the day, Dhruva joined Rani and took her for a boat-ride in
the abutting Hussainsagar. Though she wanted to hear about the nitty-gritty of the
Operation Checkmate in the making, so as not to spoil their joy-ride, he said that she
might as well see the drama unfold itself on the D-day the next day.
Chapter 7
Operation Checkmate
When it was 4 P.M the D-day, though Dhruva was raring to go, Rani was in no hurry
to desert her dressing table; but when he began hurrying her, as she hastened down the
stairs, she slipped on the staircase. Even though she said that she was fine, yet he drove
her to the Hyderabad Nursing Home, where the doctor ruled out even a hairline
fracture, but ignoring her pleas to be taken along with him, he sent her home with Raju,
whom he brought along with them.
Shortly thereafter, reaching the nearby Tank Bund, he quickly made it to the
Siddhendrayogi statue, and seeing the white Maruti Zen in the parking bay, he realized
that the game was on though there was none to be seen around. But even before he
could settle down on the lawns aside the majestic statue, Ranjit drove his Audi into the
same parking bay, and alighting from his car with two bulging travel bags, and visibly
nervous, he passed by Dhruva towards the nearby Tanesha statue. Soon, beginning in
trickles, as people started flocking to the place to occupy vantage points on the
sprawling lawns as well as on the tank-side benches, as if on cue, a handful of fast food
vendors descended upon the scene to spread all over; even as they were trying to
induce those present to taste their recopies, the toy-wallahs, who followed them, did
not lag behind in tempting the kids with fancy playthings.
When a fast food vendor, apparently in disguise, posited his chaat basket near the
Tanesha statue, seeing him ill at ease in the calling, Dhruva knew that he was indeed the
one to be marked. As the sun began to set on the Hussainsagar Lake, the vendor went
up to Ranjit and preparing some chaat, he began chitchatting with him; soon, handing
over the stuff in a paper-plate to Ranjit, the imposter, on the sly, passed on his mobile
to him. With a satisfied look on his face as Ranjit unzipped both the travel bags, elated,
the guy took away the mobile from him, and having connected it to someone; he gave it
back to Ranjit, who seemed relieved as he held it to his ear. But as Ranjit tended to hold
on to it, the guy snatched it away from him, and waited in the wings without taking his
eyes off him. Soon, when it got a little darker, he signaled to Ranjit to go down the
staircase in the backside that led to the road below; so when Ranjit picked up the
luggage and ventured into the vault of that staircase, the guy called someone on his
mobile; and abandoning his wares as is where, as he too followed suit, Dhruva reached
for his mobile.

Shortly thereafter the detective noticed a young woman, her face hidden in the pallu
of her sari, emerge from the staircase and walk towards the Maruti Zen, and discerning
the excitement in her nervous gait, he knew that she was the accomplice of Kavya’s
captor. However, arraigning her was not a part of the Operation Checkmate, he let her
drive away in the white Maruti Zen; moreover, without espying her visage, yet he had
experienced an unusual empathy for her.
Soon thereafter, as Ranjit too passed him by with Kavya, his eyes followed her all the
way to the Audi; what with her glowing persona and pleasing poise, even in that dull
setting, appealed to his romanticism, he could not help but divine her provocative figure
in her evocative gait; and finding her enchanting in her state of confusion, he began
wondering how enticing she could be in the moments of her excitation. So, when
Shakeel called him to inform him about the capture of the kidnapper, he was still under
the mesmeric spell of Kavya’s ethereal charms that paled his photographic visualizations
into insignificance.
However, the breaking news from Shakeel that the culprit turned out to be Pravar
diverted his mind to the mysterious Radha, the suspected murderess. Amazed though at
the development, he turning business-like, wanted the cop to send someone to pick up
Pravar’s chaat basket, whatever be its forensic worth; and waiting for a constable to
come to pick up the thing, he called up Rani to enquire about the state of her ‘leggy
self’. Learning that she was jumping like a jack and was eager for the news, as he
apprised her of the developments, she blamed him for having deprived her thrill of
participation; and having cajoled her; he said in half jest that he hoped she would not
hold it against him to deny him the thrill of their nocturnal indulgences.
Chapter 8
Foul on Pravar
On reaching home, and seeing Rani at the gate, Dhruva could realize how eager she
was to hear it all from the horse’s mouth. So, as if to drive home his empathy at her
having missed to see the exciting race, lighting his cigar, he began his narrative in the
portico, and she said that in the excitement of it, the aroma of the lanka pogaku was
more exhilarating than ever. Ending his move with the rescue of the captive, he said that
for the checkmate of the captor, they have to wait for Shakeel to come on air at 9.
So, tuning into TV9, they began having their drinks; and in time, Shakeel was seen on
the screen along with a handcuffed youth, whom he named as Pravar, the kingpin of the
fake-note racket that he had busted that evening. As Karim laid some bundles of
thousand-rupees notes on the table before a dazed Pravar, Shakeel boasted that the
police would catch the other members of the gang sooner than later.
“I don’t believe a word of that cop, why his body language spoke all lies,” said Rani
“Given the stock of the khakis, you can’t be faulted,” said Dhruva.
“But I’ll fault you,” she said coyly, “if you default in telling the truth.”
“What struck me in the ransom note was the kidnappers’ choice of the rendezvous
that too at a time when it gets crowded the most,” he said, switching off the TV and
lighting a fresh cigar. “Maybe the idea was to enable the kidnappers to spot the cops in
the mufti, if any, but still, it was risky as the police could lay in wait for them on either
side of the Tank Bund. Wouldn’t have the kidnappers taken that into account? It only
suggested that they could hit upon a foolproof plan to facilitate the Operation Exchange.
But why were they specific that Ranjit should wait near the Tanesha statue; surveying its
environs, I could see a nearby vaulted staircase that led to the roadside Maisamma
temple down below.”

“When we were in Gaganmahal, I used to use the stairs for my morning walks on the
Tank Bund,” she said reminiscently.
“How I wish I had met you then,” he said.
“Why, it’s better late than never,” she said.
“But not in the affairs of heart; thank god we have aligned before it was too late to
write home about it,” he said squeezing her hand. “Well, given the location of the
staircase, it wasn’t difficult to visualize the envisaged plan of exchanging the maal for
the moolah; even as the male captor would deal with Ranjit on the Tank Bund, his
female accomplice would hold Kavya on the road below, usually desolated at that hour.
And once Ranjit is made to go down the staircase with the ransom, Kavya could be led
up for the operation exchange midway with the violators blocking the way both ways.
Even if someone happened to use the staircase then, the Ranjits could be silenced with
advance threats, and what is more, the double entry or exit, as the case may be, affords
the kidnappers a two-way get-away in the escape vehicles, one parked on the Tank
Bund, and the other stationed nearby Maisamma Temple.”
“Isn’t it foolproof?” said Rani, “But how come they came a cropper.”
“No denying that but ironically it’s the brilliance of the plan that betrayed their idea
behind it,” said Dhruva. “Initially I thought of freeing Kavya, by arraigning her captor
without her partner on the Tank Bund getting wind of it but as you know, by then,
Shakeel laid his hands on those fake notes in the Operation Moolah though the culprits
gave him the slip. I don’t know why, but I got a naughty idea; what if the fake money
was clothed as ransom amount and the kidnapper pictured as the kingpin of the
counterfeit racket? Though Shakeel was excited at that prospect, yet he was afraid of
the pitfalls, and it took a great deal of effort on my part to make him fall in line.”
Though Rani admired him for his ingenuous idea, Dhruva said that on second
thoughts, he felt that it was morally reprehensible and conceptually unethical; and
turning remorseful as he said that, given a chance, he would not repeat it for sure, she
told him that the episode brought to the fore her own guilt in her cynical enterprise, and
like him, she too would not like to repeat it. Puzzled by her mane and manner, though
he pressed her to confide in him, but smiling sweetly, she said that he might as well wait
for she was not running away from him right then. At that, he said in jest that he would
break her legs to stop her from leaving him, and she reminded him coquettishly that she
was within his arms reach, so even as he took her into his arms, he received a call from
Shakeel.
Complimenting him for the finesse in the execution of the Operation Checkmate,
though the detective invited him to exchange notes, the cop excused himself as he had
to rush to his native place to see his ailing mother.
Chapter 9
Stockholm Syndrome
Next day, when Ranjit reached 9, Castle Hills, Dhruva was playing shuttle badminton
with Rani in its backyard, and as Raju announced his arrival, Dhruva playfully told Rani
that he would like to flaunt her before the visitor. Turning coquettish, she told him that
she had no eyes for any other man, and not to be outdone, he said that had she been
there on the Tank Bund the other day, Ranjit would have lost his eyes for her, thereby
putting Pravar in a fix. She said joyously that though she was flattered, she was eager to
know how Kavya could have spent the time with her captors, and he told her that she
better eavesdrop as he closeted with her man. Chiding him for wanting to spoil her
morals, she got into the swimming pool, and he went into the study to meet the visitor.

Dismissing his apologies for having kept him waiting, Ranjit lost no time in blaming
him for the fake-notes mess he had created for him, though falling short of demanding
compensation for the damage caused. Turning apologetic for not having taken him into
confidence, the culprit explained to the aggrieved that had he been privy to the plan, he
would have probably fumbled in handling Pravar, and that would have put his wife’s life
at risk. However, Ranjit bemoaned that Kavya was cut up with him for playing foul with
Pravar for he treated her fairly in her captivity.
At length, cajoled by Dhruva that all that would come to a pass, Ranjit placed the
Kavya-cards on the table - in the pouring rain, around three that day, she stepped out of
the Spandan wondering how to hire an auto; what a hassle it was in Hyderabad as the
auto-wallahs tended to veto the savaaris. So, when a youth drove his auto straight up to
her, thinking it was a Godsend, she got into it, and to spare herself the spatter, she
gratefully accepted his offer to unwind the Rexene windshields. Not long after they
turned the bend, as a well-drenched young woman was beckoning for an auto, he asked
her if she would like to accommodate the hapless lass, out of humanitarian
consideration, she consented to his proposition.
However, the next thing that she could recall was that she woke up in an alien place
with the pair around, who, after introducing themselves as Pravar and Natya, began to
press her to disclose her man’s monitory worth. Though she kept mum initially but as he
warned her that she better revealed that before he forced her to tell about her man’s
manly worth as well, she retorted that it was unbecoming of a man to trick a woman on
the sly. But when he asked Natya to leave him alone to enable him to assess her
womanly worth, afraid of rape, she agreed to cooperate. When he thought of a ransom
of five-crore rupees, she told him that he might forget about it; and even as he scaled it
down to three-crores, yet as she protested, but he told her that she might count her
days if her man was not prepared to cough up even that much.
While confining her in the guestroom of at desolated house on the outskirts, and
having warned her against any misadventure, they took turns to guard her, lest she
should give them a slip. Though Pravar was younger to her by twelve years, but
whenever she was alone with him, she was ever in fright that he might turn eager for
her; and during the nights, though he was fast asleep on the floor, holding the rope that
tied both her hands, keeping an eye on him, lying on the cot, she used to keep awake all
night. However, he always tried to win her sympathy by picturing his wayward life, and
Natya too went out of her way to earn her goodwill by catering to her every need. So,
when she told him that once freed, she might practice law, he said jocularly that if only
she took his briefs, he would ensure that her wallet bulged like a pregnant womb. Well,
his semantics only helped aggravate her lurking fear of rape that was at the back of her
mind all the while - that was the long and short of Kavya’s ordeal of a kidnap.
Asked about his rendezvous on the Tank Bund, Ranjit said that after verifying the
ransom money and ensuring that there were no khakis around in the mufti; Pravar let
him talk to Kavya on the mobile phone. Later, followed by Pravar, as Ranjit was half way
down the staircase, he saw Natya leading Kavya up the steps, and after the operation
exchange, as Natya ascended the stairs; Pravar descended the vault with the booty.
Moved by his concern for her, though his wife thanked him all the way to the Spandan,
but seeing Shakeel implicate Pravar in the fake-note case in that TV presser, she became
so furious that she wanted an explanation from him. When he told her that he had no
inkling about it at all, she saw it as a dirty trick of the police to serve their own ends, and
he tried to pacify her by saying that, in either case, Pravar had to serve the sentence.
However, maintaining that it was no justification for such falsification, she said that
Pravar used to joke about her carrying his briefs and wondered aloud what if she took
up his case.

While Ranjit lamented that he was at a loss to understand Kavya’s inexplicable
behavior, cautioning him not to let her ever get wiser to the nuances of her rescue act,
Dhruva counseled him to keep his cool while she got over her nerves. But harping on
how the misadventure had upset his mate, Ranjit wondered of what avail it all was, and
thus having put her rescuer on the back foot, he extricated himself from his
commitment by handing the latter a cheque for a paltry twenty-thousand. Measuring
Ranjit’s meanness in that meager amount, yet the detective told him to call on him if he
ever needed any help, and as an after-thought enquired about the fate of his call letter
to his wife. Glad for being saved from playing the blame game, Ranjit said that having
read it, without a comment, his wife had tucked it in her handbag.
Seeing Ranjit’s back, as Dhruva turned pensive, Rani, failing to enliven him with her
coquetry, nevertheless, managed to cajole him into breaking his silence; he said that he
was worried that the foisted case on Pravar might end up hurting Kavya in wayward
ways; and urged by Rani to elaborate his conjecture, he elucidated the intriguing aspects
of the ‘Stockholm Syndrome’.
“It’s a psychic state in which the kidnapped turn sympathetic to their captors after
they are freed,” he said. “It is said that the survival instinct activates the defensive
mechanism in the captives to let them identify themselves with the captors to ward off
possible violence against them. In that state of emotional stress and physical duress,
accentuated by a sense of helplessness dominated by fear, the captives magnify small
acts of kindness by their captors. Wonder how I failed to factor that!”
“What an irony is that!” said Rani.
“Courtesy those four days in Pravar’s captivity, apparently her latent sympathies for
the underdogs resurged,” he said pensively. “Maybe, she came to identify herself more
with her depraved captor rather than with her mean man, who came to enjoy her
father’s bequeath by default.”
“I’ve heard of a story, fact, or fiction I can’t say,” said Rani. “Seeing a murderer being
paraded to the gallows, it was love at first sight for a girl, and what’s more, she wanted
to marry him before he was hanged, and so begged the king to spare his life; my
memory fails me at that.”
“Dear, it’s all about the perplexities of human psychology,” said Dhruva. “Coming
back to Kavya, it is possible that in Ranjit’s move to deny Pravar the ransom, she could
have seen the propensity of the rich to deprive the poor. Now that Pravar was falsely
implicated, her sympathy for him would have acquired weird emotional wings as well;
and given Ranjit’s presumed deceitfulness towards Pravar, she might begin to lean
towards her ex-captor even more. What is more, where it all might lead her to, her fate
only would know; how I wish she wouldn’t become another Patty Hearst; you may know
that Hearst even became an accomplice of her captors to assist them, of all things, in
bank robberies. May God forbid that to Kavya, but the silver-lining is that Hearst could
come out of her psychic aberration to disown her gory association. Maybe, as I created
the mess, I may have to clear it up as well.”
Chapter 10
An Aborted Affair
When Rani proposed a trip to Ooty to let him bide his time as she did his bidding,
Dhruva pitched in for ‘train journey’, but as she wanted to ‘air dash’ so as not to ‘lose
time’, they boarded an Indian Airlines flight that very evening. Upon landing at the
airport, on their way to a star-hotel, even as the serene surroundings of the hill resort
refreshed his mind, her innate romanticism too insensibly enamored his heart; and once
ensconced in the hotel suite, making it their love nest, they rarely ventured out of it.

Soon, amidst the ‘time of their lives’, Ranjit him rang up to lament over the ugly turn
of the events in his vexatious life.
Kavya went to the Cherlapalli jail to apologize to Pravar for what had happened, and
as the culprit played up to her psyche by exaggerating his plight, she became obsessive
about earning him a reprieve, and disregarding his objection, she took up her ex-
captor’s vakalat, making him wonder where all that would lead her to; so he was at a
loss as to how to wean her away from that vagabond.
Dismayed at the unforeseen development, Dhruva said that it was better that Ranjit
kept his cool for the best course of action seemed to be inaction then; he also advised
him to leave her alone until she got over her obsession for any hurdles he might place in
her way could only buttress her resolve to surmount them, leading her to a disastrous
end. Though he tried to shore up Ranjit’s spirits, he himself was saddened that the
beauty he coveted has come under the emotional grip of the beast of his own creation,
he couldn’t warm up even to Rani he began to love.
However, as he began to resign himself to her fate, making it a double jeopardy for
him, soon, a furious Shakeel rang him up to recount how Kavya had hauled him over the
coals in the court hall on Pravar’s account. She urged the judge to take note of the fact
that Pravar was a petty thief and not a mafia don as is being made out by the police, and
drove home the point that as he was the sole accused, it was inconceivable that he
single-handedly ran a multi-crore fake-notes racket. Besides, arguing that Shakeel had
foisted a false case on her client; she suggested that the cop could’ve seized the booty
while the bootleggers gave him the slip, or who knew, he might have let them off at the
behest of the powers that be; so to cover up his lapses, and to earn some false laurels,
he made Pravar the fall guy.
That was not all, she produced Natya in the court, who sensationally revealed that
not only Kavya had stayed with Pravar and her for four days prior to his arrest but also
she accompanied them to the Tank Bund in the very car in which the fake currency
notes were allegedly found by the police. She also swore that having parked the car
nearby Maisamma Temple, all three of them went up to the Tank Bunk to relax and
recreate, and at some point, as Kavya complained of headache, Pravar went down to
fetch the Saridon tablets kept in their car, and it was then that he was apprehended by
the police to foist the fake-notes case on him. And that stunned all, including the judge.
What with Natya having come up trumps in the intense cross-examination that
followed, there was no way the public prosecutor could have pulled the rug from under
her feet as no case of kidnap was registered against Pravar or her. As the judge was
quick in passing strictures against Shakeel, making him curse Dhruva for once, he
nevertheless asked the public prosecutor to seek time for further investigation. Thus
when the judge ordered the release of Pravar on bail, all applauded Kavya’s sterling
performance, and as a grateful Pravar thanked her no end, an appalled Ranjit led her
out of the court hall.
Then, a dumbfounded Dhruva had to strain every nerve to convince Shakeel that
their failure was owing to the ‘Stockholm Syndrome’ that he had failed to factor in while
fashioning the Operation Checkmate; and having vented his anger against Kayva, the
cop stunned the detective by revealing, as if as an afterthought, about Pravar’s damning
admission, during the interrogation, of having poisoned his sister and her lover, and
vowed to book him for the double murder. However, seeing the futility of apprehending
Pravar, based on his confession in police custody, for any novice of a lawyer could
induce the court to set him free for want of evidence, the detective advised the cop to
better guard himself against the wounded Pravar.

Nursing his self-inflicted wounds thereafter, and having realized that his meaningless
obsession with Radha failed his investigative logic in heading towards Pravar, Dhruva
felt ashamed of his professional incompetence. That his ill-conceived idea to bring the
fake notes into the ransom play has come to derange Kavya and embarrass Shakeel has
only added to his depressive feeling. Thus, with the damage done and his pride dented,
he showed no inclination to return to action, though the cop was ever on the phone to
goad him to be back soon.
However, as Rani was all-eager to make the best of their sojourn, in the euphoria of
their whirlwind romance that rolled days and nights into one, time seemed but a
fleeting moment of their passion. So, when he sought her hand in marriage, she sought
to excuse herself, and perplexed by her inexplicable rebuff, he became unrelenting in
his pleas; but as she disclosed that she was a married woman, he was aghast beyond
belief. Nonetheless, bowled by her charms, though he insisted that she divorce her man
to adorn his life, she remained unmoved, and devastated by her refusal to yield, he
demanded to know what prompted her to become such a heartless flirt.
Rani’s parents hailed from Waltair, where she graduated in arts; after which as she
moved over to Hyderabad, she met Ramesh, to whose advances she had readily yielded;
but realizing the gravity of her transgression, she goaded him to regularize their
irregular union. While he wanted time to sort out things with his parents, who were
averse to their union on caste considerations, her parents were in a hurry to give her
hand to Satish, who they thought was a suitable boy in every way. So, as Ramesh
continued to dilly dally even though she ran out of excuses to spurn Satish’s hand, she
forced the issue with her lover, who revealed that he was already a married man; and
shaken to the core, she married the latter to repair her life as his wife.
What with Satish’s charm and wit inducing warmth in her jilted life, she soon got over
the bitterness of her betrayed past; so they had been reaping the fruits of their
conjugation, well past the seven year itch, though without laying the seeds of it, which
was the only hitch in their blessed match. Maybe to make up for that lacking, as Satish
got obsessed with his career to the exclusion of all else, she came to bear the brunt of
her barrenness; and what’s worse, three years back, he developed an ambition to start a
mega venture of his own, which only turned their home into his office in the offing. So,
as courted his career with passion, keeping her libido in the cold, she began entertaining
the idea of an extramarital affair.
When she made up her mind to spice up her life in a liaison, as she recalled Ramesh’s
trickery, her erotic idea came to acquire a vengeful edge, inducing her to develop an
urge to play a la Ramesh with a man to get even with him in the man’s world. It was
then that she recalled the cop who had put her cousin Ashok’s murder under the carpet,
over which he led his murderess wife to the altar, and that motivated her to avenge the
foul play. But when she came to know that Mithya the killer was no more and her cop
lover became Detective Dhruva, she came to see him as an ideal target for her sexual
revenge as well.
While she was upbeat at that thought, coinciding with Satish’s exploratory visit to the
U.S for a business tie-up, appeared Dhruva’s ad for an assistant lady sleuth; it was her
idea to incite his curiosity by loitering at the gate that rainy day as a prelude to taking
him into her revengeful arms. But soon, lost in his passion, she lost her appetite for
revenge, and as he began to love her too, she developed an urge to bear his child; so
she would have loved to make love to him until she had missed her periods, but as her
man was due by the weekend; it was time she ended her sojourn with him, but for all
she knew, their child might well be in the offing.

Aghast at that, as a despaired Dhruva begged her to divorce her man and marry him;
she said that she would rather stick to her husband than tie up with a philanderer like
him. Even though he vouched for his eternal fidelity, as she didn’t yield on the
emotional ground, so as to turn her around, he played up to her ego by praising her
beauty and brains no end. But unmoved still, as she said that he being a ladies’ man,
there wouldn’t be any dearth of desirable mates for him, he begged her not to make it a
sudden death to his ardor and continue their liaison till he could master his emotions.
Still remaining unrelenting, as she said that it was no way to make the best of the hoped
for change in her life, he retorted by saying that she was being cruel to him; and yet
maintaining that it was part of life, she told him that he would be able to put all that
behind him as soon as he fancies some dame.
Chapter 11
Psyche of Revenge
When a dejected Dhruva returned home alone that evening, Raju informed him that
some Radha came to see him in the morning. What with the lost love and his hurt ego
haunting him, he thought no more of petticoat chasing, even if it were the coveted
Radha, whom, after Shakeel’s revelation, he came to pity as well, so he thought.
Whatever, to catch up with the lost time and to get back to the brass-tacks of his
business, he invited the cop to review the Operation Checkmate afresh over a couple of
drinks.
Lying in wait in mufti near Maisamma temple, said Shakeel sipping ‘Teachers’ on the
rocks, he sighted the earmarked Santro, driven by a young woman. After she brought
the vehicle to a halt, nearby the roadside shrine, he alerted the patrol parties stationed
at all the exit points. When he was nearly tired of keeping focus on the target in that
dim light, he saw the woman alight from the car along with Kavya, whom she readily led
into the vaulted staircase abutting the in-built temple. Shortly thereafter, he had seen a
familiar looking figure emerge from the staircase with the handbags that he himself had
arranged for the Operation Checkmate. While the guy was about to get into the Santro,
a Skoda passed him by, and in the flash of its headlights, he was surprised to realize that
he was none other than Pravar himself. However, when the rogue steered the car
towards the Ramakrishna Mutt Road, he had alerted the patrol party in wait near the
Dharna Chowk, and by the time, he himself joined them, they had already nabbed the
stunned culprit. But it was his own turn to be shocked, when, during interrogation,
Pravar revealed his hidden hand in the unresolved double murder of Madhu and Mala.
Sparing the cop with his barbs for once, the detective wanted a picture of the
captor’s background to bring the captive’s perturbed psyche to the foreground. So
began Shakeel to sketch Pravar’s skewed past.
Mala was ten when Pravar was born, and soon thereafter, as their mother became
sickly, their father took to drinking, further denting their family’s meager resources.
What with a drunkard father to contend with, a sickly mother to attend to and a
younger sibling to provide for, Mala began to mature more than her age. However,
when her brother was ten, their father kicked the bucket, and shortly thereafter, thanks
to her good looks and a relative’s good samaritanism, Suraiah, a measly clerk in the civil
works department, came into her life as her man. Just the same, she was discomfited as
he turned out to be utterly miserly, for she believed that a paisa well-spent was far
more worthy than a horded rupee, but soon, as her mother too died, making her
brother an orphan, her husband, in spite of his reservations, had to accommodate him
in their home. Pravar was fourteen then.

Sadly, that arrangement didn’t auger well for Pravar as he was torn between his
sister’s affection and his brother-in-law’s resentment to his presence in the house,
which turned him into a schizophrenic: while his physical proximity to her insensibly
induced in him a sub-conscious sexual affinity with her, her marital closeness with the
man he abhorred inexorably bred a sexual jealousy in him. And that made him an
awkward being, perturbing Mala and annoying Suraiah but attracting Rajan, a hardened
criminal, who took him under his tutelage. As his wayward ways that followed made his
brother-in-law take jibe at his sister, it further fuelled his subconscious oneness with
her; but when his nemesis died in a road mishap, with no rival to her affections, he
began to dote upon her like never before, which suited her as well, for it catered to her
innate need for male attention.
In time though, as she was absorbed in the department on compassionate grounds,
she began leaning towards Madhu, her enamored boss, and for its part, destiny that
scripts its acts in life’s plays with some denouement in mind, enabled Rajan to trick a
young Natya into eloping with him. And that proved to be a double jeopardy for Pravar;
bitten by Natya’s charms, even as he was eying her, seeing it as a travesty of his
devotion to Mala, he was beset by qualms. But soon though, further accentuating his
mental distress, as Mala became Madhu’s keep, and seeing her dote on the new man in
her life, he was truly depressed. Soon, as Madhu reduced his young son Raghu into
Mala’s errand boy, Pravar took up cudgels with his sister on the boy’s behalf, but
perceiving that was the privilege of a mistress, she paid a deaf ear to his protestations.
As a result, he came to identify himself more and more with the hapless boy, and that
made him resent her liaison with the tormentor even more.
However, at length, abetted by him, when Raghu rebelled, an irate Madhu said that
for all he knew, he could be a bastard, and humiliated thus, as the hapless boy
committed suicide on the railway tracks; Pravar felt that Madhu had no right to live, and
so also his sister, who was no less callous either. What’s worse, he came to perceive
Radha as a cock-pecked wife, unmindful of her son’s plight, and that evaporated the
sympathy he felt for her as a neglected wife, owing to his sister’s trespass into her
marital life. So, strangely, it was his sense of righteousness that steeled Pravar’s heart
against the disparate trio.
Thus, even as he was morally low, the lifting of prohibition, ending the bootlegging in
the State, had hurt him monetarily as well. It was then that Rajan thought of wriggling
out of the tight spot through the extortions from kidnappings. But what with the
dangerous pursuit emboldening him even more, Pravar developed the nerve to kill, and
waited for the opportune moment as by then Madhu started mixing his women by
taking Mala home. So, he worked on a plan to eliminate the three of them without
soiling his hands that developed the skill to tamper with bottle seals in his bootlegging
days. Being aware that under Madhu’s influence, Mala took to drinking, he presumed
that Radha must be a habitual drinker too, so he poisoned a bottle of Teacher’s Scotch,
and waited for the day that Madhu and Mala gloated over as their Union Day. So on that
U-day, he presented the ‘bottle of death’, sans his fingerprints, to Mala for their cynical
celebration with the lost out wife. When Mala said that Radha was ‘no game for that’,
he said in jest that they might as well leave the dregs for her to rue later, and true to his
word, he implicated Radha by poisoning Shakeel’s mind about her involvement in the
double murder.
As Mala’s death ended Pravar’s emotional divide, so his passion for Natya came to
rule his heart, and being bolder for the double murder, he plotted to eliminate Rajan to
usurp his woman, and waited for the right opportunity, which presented itself soon
enough. That midnight, the three of them were in wait at a secluded spot in Shamirpet
to collect a hefty ransom from a businessman, whose kid they kidnapped the day

before. While Rajan and Pravar waited for the father at the exchange site, holding the
kid, Natya positioned herself at a safe distance. When the father met them with the
ransom amount, Pravar went up to Natya to fetch the kid for the barter; but on the way
back to her with the booty, he shot his benefactor dead, which he pictured it to her as a
police action, and the cops too publicized it as such to score a few Brownie points of
‘law and order’.
Having split the booty with Natya and thus having gained her trust, he induced her to
marry him, after which, even though she urged him to give up his wayward ways, as he
desisted, being too far down the road of crime by then; she had no choice but to keep
pace with him. Thus while he planned the next kidnap, wiser for the possible police
action while collecting the ransom in a secluded location, he conceived the ingenuous
rendezvous on the busy Tank Bund with its sparsely used staircase to the road below.
What with Natya playing her part to perfection, they almost pulled it off, but only fell
short owing to Dhruva’s uncanny foresight into their plan though without any hindsight.
Chapter 12
Victim of Trust
Next day, waking up earlier than usual, Dhruva began sipping his bed-coffee in the
portico, thinking about the inimical twists and turns in Radha’s chequered life; and had a
gut feeling that it was she, who came to see him the other day. Even as his newfound
empathy for her, coupled with his earlier fascination, seized him with an urge to see her,
Dicey began to bark; so glancing at the gate, and seeing a fascinating woman, he readily
lost his heart to her, but having been bitten once and thinking it’s better to be twice shy,
though she approached him seductively, he subdued himself consciously. Just the same,
when she introduced herself, he couldn’t resist holding out his hand to her, but as she
offered her services to him, he wanted to have her resume before he made up his mind.
Radha was the only child of her parents, who pampered her much beyond their
middle-class means. Studious and methodical, she even excelled at her studies that is
relatively speaking, and seemed to be well on the way to become a Chartered
Accountant after her parents’ dreams. However, when she crossed eighteen, her life
went awry for she lost her heart to a handsome newcomer in their locality, whose
identity she preferred not to reveal, for the world was small after all. What with love
ruling her head, fuelled by his wooing, she failed to apply her mind at her studies to end
up at the bottom of the class, and her father, who had all along entertained visions of
seeing her in the chartered mould of ‘Brahmaiah’, was aghast at her poor academic
showing. When he sought her explanation about her low scores, she showed him her
lover’s letters vouching eternal devotion to her, and that left him with no choice but to
approach the boy’s father, who roundly blamed her for enticing his son, and outraged
by the slur, her father asked her to break up with him.
However, as her lover assured her that he would prevail over his parents in the end,
blinded by love and guided by fate, she carried on with him on the sly, but as her
escapades came to her father’s notice, he strictly restricted her movements, and started
looking for a match for her. So, she eloped with him when she was barely nineteen and
they got married in a temple; while her disgusted father disowned her, his unreconciled
parents began weaning him away from her. However, the fortuitous presence of an aunt
of her childhood friend in that town afforded her some badly needed succor and
support.
Soon, however, as he came to wilt under the emotional blackmail of his parents, his
will to stick to her through thick and thin began to wane, and thus, even as she was

hard-pressed to hold him, his father upped the ante by pitting his mediocre life with her
against the rosy future as the son-in-law of a well-heeled man with a vivacious daughter.
While the parent-induced insecurity played upon his mind, the envisaged beauty of the
bride-to-be proved to be an appetizer for his lust, so he came to perceive her as a drag
on his promising life. As if the prospect of losing him was not nightmarish enough, she
missed her periods, regardless of which, he deserted her heartlessly, and that sealed her
fate. Thus, left in the lurch, as she burnt her bridges with her parents, so in desperation,
she returned to her native to contact that friend, her full-soul mate, and her half-
namesake, but in vain.
Then seeing a twitch on Dhruva’s brow, she thought that some namesake of hers
might have stirred his heart before, and he, staring at her, wondered what if she were to
jilt him like half-namesake.
When she learned that her friend, having married in the meantime, moved out of
town by then, Radha resumed the recap of her life and times; she turned to an elderly
man she knew from her childhood days to help her find a job. But as he tried to snare
her into a relationship, which made her realize the pitfalls of a single woman in the
man’s world, swallowing her pride, as a prodigal daughter, she returned home to her
parents’ subdued welcome. However, as she was keen to bear her child, which
proposition her mother supported, her father had to find a groom for her on a war
footing, and that brought Madhu, an Engineer in the Civil Works Department, into her
life.
While Madhu jumped at the prospect of marrying her, as she found him not to her
liking, she began dragging her feet, her father told her either to abort her child or wed
that Engineer. With the lurking danger her bulging belly posed, she bowed her head to
let Madhu tie the knot, and he, blinded by her beauty, not only turned blind to her
reticence in their nuptial bed but also failed to grasp the import of the early arrival of
her son, Raghu; whom she came to dote upon, more out of a sense of guilt than an
affection for the man who fathered him; but somehow Madhu was never enamored of
him, though not out of any suspicion.
However, it took the seven-year itch for her man to get wind of her conjugal
indifference towards him, and that hurt his ego and crushed his heart; well, she always
knew that she had to involve her body and mind to save the nuptial tie, and yet she
couldn’t bring herself around to obey the dictates of cohabitation. Maybe vexed with
her cold embrace, Madhu sought to pep up his sex-life with the prostitutes, fetched by
his bribe money, and even as she thought that life couldn’t get worse than that, fate had
other indignities in store for her.
When someone from his department died in an accident, Mala, his widow, with a
brother to support, was absorbed on compassionate grounds; and he lost no time in
ingratiating with her, picturing himself as a neglected husband, deprived of woman’s
affections and all. Succumbing to his falsity, owe be to the vulnerable woman, she
entered into an illicit relationship with him, ironically buttressed by his ill-gotten money.
Thereafter, while he lavished his attention on her, as if to add insult to the injury, he
forced Raghu to run errands for her, and when she chided him for reducing his own son
as a valet of his keep; he implied that she herself being so cold to him; her boy, for all he
knew, could be a bastard.
Worried about her boy’s future in that situation, when she raked her brains to save
him, she thought of his biological father, who so cruelly ditched her to hitchhike with a
moneyed dame. However mean he might have been, she thought, with the means at his
disposal, won’t he put their boy in some boarding school or the other? So she tried to
locate him, more out of desperation than in hope, and managed to meet him, though

after a long haul, but as she pictured their son’s plight, he painted himself as a lovelorn,
paying the price for his betrayal in his wife’s cold bed, which left him childless in their
wedlock. As he managed to light her old flame, in spite of his desertion, and with no
love lost for her spouse; she had no qualms in sleeping with him, hoping to prop up their
son.
At the end of a weeklong rendezvous in which he overwhelmed her with his passion,
she set aside her past bitterness and asked him to take her as his second wife to give
their son his due. But lo, the bastard made her feel ashamed of herself; what cruelty to
say that she was a first grade maal all right, but she should’ve known that even for a
second wife, she was a third rate slut. When she retorted, what if she told his wife about
their connection, he warned her that she might as well forget about her future whatever
little it might have held for her, for he would engage a supari to eliminate her without
anyone ever getting wiser about it. How disgusted she was with the man she once loved
and compromised with again, she only knew.
However, things came to a head when Raghu questioned Madhu as to how he could
reduce his own son as an errand boy of his mistress; not only her man callously retorted
what proof he had of his own paternity but also rubbed salt on her son’s paternal
wound with the adage that while maternity was a fact, paternity was only a faith. Given
Raghu’s premature birth, he asserted that he never thought that he was indeed his
father, and unable to bear the humiliation, her boy committed suicide on the railway
tracks.
Madhu though saw in the tragedy an opportunity to slight her further, and so he
began bringing Mala home, as a prelude to a ménage a trios, as he put it. But deciding
to call a spade a spade, she sought divorce, to which, he was averse, as his sexual
interest in her, by then, had resurged, as a byproduct of his passion for his mistress.
Moreover, adding insult to injury, he said that not counting alimony; a house maid could
be more expensive than a wife, but as she refused his demands for threesome orgies, he
further debased himself as a wife-beater.
When she was all set to press for divorce regardless, tragedy struck her that fateful
evening; as he tried to force her to drink with him and his mistress, as she refused to
oblige, he necked her out of the house in a fit of rage, forcing her to turn to a friend for
shelter, since her parents were dead and gone by then. But the next day, when a
neighbor informed her on her mobile that Madhu and Mala died of poisoning and the
police were on the lookout for her, she rushed to the Saifabad Police Station to clear her
name, only to be locked-up by the Inspector as the main suspect. Oh, how he had
abused her, she only knew, oh, what a diabolical character he was!
Though that cop failed to book the real culprit to date, she always had a hunch that
Pravar, Mala’s awara brother, would have been behind the murders, and so with a little
detective work, she gathered that he became an object of ridicule because of his
sibling’s conduct and that all taunted him on that score. That could have been a motive
for him to eliminate the illicit couple, but whatever it was, she was certain that the drink
the couple drank to their death was poisoned by Pravar, who had a criminal background
to boot, though not on the scale that the police tried to picture on the TV screens in the
fake-notes case. While it all smelled fishy, the other day she chanced to see Dhruva’s ad
in an old issue of Eenadu, which prompted her to reach him.
Finishing her tale of woes and looking into his eyes desirously, she said enticingly that
she hoped that at last, her hopes won’t turn out to be dupes after all, and that he would
set things right for her while she herself assisted him in his endeavors.
Since Radha’s version jelled with Shakeel’s account, Dhruva felt it was indeed a
poetic justice that Pravar, who tried to implicate her in a murder she didn’t commit,

found himself in the dock for a crime that he had nothing to do with. Besides, he felt
that her experience with her lover illustrate that even as love emanates from sexual
union, in spite of it, lust remains barbarian.
While she looked at him in hope, he asked her what she thought could have been
behind her lover’s refusal to part with a penny being in a position to do so; she said that
in hindsight it was clear to her that besides being a mean-being, he was money-minded
as well. Moreover, the way he used and abused a trusting woman indicates how
despicable he was.
When he extended his hand to her in anticipation, as she held it a little longer, he
recalled Ranjit’s twenty-thousand dole against the promised half- a million bonanza.
Chapter 13
Backyard of Life
The next day, when Radha reported for work, Dhruva led her into his study to throw
open his library of crime, as he put it that included the collections on Holmes, Mason
et al for her to pore into, and as she was engrossed with the former, Raju went up to her
to usher her to join his master at the dining table. But as she reached him with the
lunchbox she brought along with her, Dhruva said that the perquisites included free
lunches, and smiling coyly, she said that she won’t mind working extra time if she
could’ve free dinners as well.
While Radha came to spend long hours at 9, Castle Hills, Dhruva lost no time in
initiating her to drinks with Gin and Sprite as he had his Old Monk with Thums UP. When
he asked her if his smoking a cigar was any bother for her, she said that having savored
the smell of pogaku in his breath, she was all-eager to have a feel of its smoke as well.
So, as he lit his lanka, maintaining that she enjoyed its aroma, she wondered whether he
could make rings out of its smoke, the way Pran does in the movies. So, as he exhibited
his prowess at it, she wanted an encore, and he too goaded her to repeat her booze.
While he was mixing a drink for her, she said that but for her abstinence then, her fate
would have been tied up with the illicit couple, and added that to usurp their properties,
Pravar might have aimed at poisoning three of them with the same drink.
At length, what with Radha’s seductive balm soothing his jilted wound, and her
eagerness to come ever closer to him dissolving his resolve to be tightlipped, Dhruva
appraised her how Pravar was fixed in the fake-notes case. When she said that maybe
the dubious means justified the deserving end, he told her that Pravar had already
confessed to the cop about his nefarious role in the double murder, though it was of no
avail to book him for that. Saying that just the same she was glad to hear that, she said
cheers all again, and clinking her glass with his own, he told her that he saw a possible
role for her in tackling the peculiar challenges Kavya’s psychic aberrations the Stockholm
Syndrome might pose in Pravar’s case.
By the time Raju was ready to serve them dinner, Radha had a drink too many, and as
Dhruva led her to the dining table by her waist, he was struck by her silken skin.
However, after a sumptuous dinner, when she said that she would like to go home, he
suggested that she better stayed back for the night, at which she turned coy and said
that it might be risky. When he said that though a ladies’ man, yet he was a gentleman,
and having had a hearty laugh at that, she said that what she meant was about the risk
he ran in her nocturnal company. Meeting his flummoxed look with her lowered eyelids,
she told him that she heard that a man lets a woman into his house only as a prelude to
letting her into his heart. Elated at her advance, he told her that he was not the one to
shy away from such a welcome prospect, and she coyly reminded him about the

proverbial camel that took over the tent when it was allowed only to cool its head.
Saying that his heart and hearth were too big for any to fill them, he cajolingly led her
into Mithya’s room, and as he enabled her onto the mahogany cot, she pulled him into
her ardent embrace to anoint herself as the reigning queen of 9, Castle Hills.
Next morning, ushering in a new era in his life, as she served him bed-coffee; he
caught her hand and said that she was hotter in his arms than the steamy thing in his
hand. Turning coquettish, she said that she knew his ardor would keep her ever eager,
and watched him joyously as he savored the strong coffee; when he took her into his
ardent embrace, she entwined with him amorously.
After breakfast, with him in tow, she went to her Red Hills house to fetch her
wardrobe as a prelude to let her transport herself into his life. So, feeling at home in his
house on their return, and later seeing him eating her preparations greedily at lunch,
she said coyly that she had some dessert to serve as well; while he played innocent, she
pushed him all the way to Mithya’s room that by then, she had already made her own.
Later, breaking up his siesta before her, he went into the study to check the mail, and
began reading a letter in Rani’s hand that read.
Dear deadly:
I’m glad that your child is taking shape up in my womb, and it’s no blackmail.
As I thought he would, my man came around. But if I were to be widowed
when I still have it in me, you can count on my availability that is if you need
me then, and God forbid, should fate orphan our offspring, I hope
9, Castle Hills’ gates are ever open for it.
Love,
You know who.
Seeing the smudged defacement of the postal stamp on the envelope, he saw the
irony of his only progeny being in anonymity, and secured the letter in the chest of
drawers.
When Radha came to serve him some steamy tea, finding him morose, she said
playfully that she was disappointed that even the newness of her charms was of no avail
to enliven him; and as he took her into his arms, as if to underscore her position in his
life, she told him gravely that not all his virility would help her as she underwent
hysterectomy, and added in jest that she wondered how he yet failed to father Mithya’s
child. When he told her that Mithya had had a couple of miscarriages, as she wanted to
know more about her life, he said that she would have that by and by. However, when
she said in half-jest that as she waited for a peep into Mithya’s past, what if he took her
to the backyard of his life, so he led her there, saying mockingly that it was no Garden of
Eden.
Possibly a lovechild, he was abandoned at the gates of an orphanage in Devarakadra,
and an ayah there named him Dhruva for she felt that he shone like the North star.
When it was time to put him in school, since none knew his surname, the headmaster
lent the village name to it to make him Dhruva Devarakadra; but as he showed some
prowess at catching the kitchenware- thieves at the orphanage and retrieving the ‘lost’
pencils from the wrong boxes at the school, he became Detective Dhruva to all. Thanks
to a Good Samaritan, who funded his higher education, he graduated in humanities and
joined the police department to have a hands-on-experience in dealing with crimes.
While his ignorance about his caste and creed made him blissfully immune to pride
and prejudice, and despite the deprivation of parental love, he managed not to carry
any emotional baggage. Maybe to retrieve the lost ground of affection, he coveted

women’s love and so courted the desirable with some luck in between. Though he made
a mark at his work, owing to his lacking a caste identity, none knocked at his door to
invite him to lead their daughter to the altar. However, thanks to the women who
fancied him, he didn’t miss much that way, to talk about which to a lady may not be
chivalrous for a man; though all that changed when Mithya came into his life; but her
untimely death brought him back to square one.
Saying she would strive to make good Mithya’s irreparable loss, as she embraced him
ardently, as if to draw comfort from it, he rested his head on her ample bosom.
Chapter 14
Cuckoo’s Nest
Next day, when Raju announced Ranjit’s arrival, Dhruva said jocularly that Radha
might as well meet Mr. Interval, but she told him mischievously that it pays to retain his
Ace of Hearts in case the stakes were raised.
Leaving her with a pleased look, Dhruva reached the study to find a downcast Ranjit,
who said that Kavya had come under Pravar’s spell, and sadly, he had every reason to
believe that she was carrying on with him. As Ranjit bemoaned how his upright wife
chose to have an affair with a hardened criminal, Dhruva said that he should bear with it
all till she got over her aberration induced by the Stockholm Syndrome. Assuming the
role of a psychiatrist, the detective tried to convince the cuckold that he should be
considerate to his unfortunate wife, while he himself would strain every nerve to get
her out of her paramour’s emotional clutches.
While Dhruva was closeted with Ranjit in the study, Radha went about arranging her
things in Mithya’s room and found the main cupboard ajar. Wondering whether it was
Dhruva’s idea to let her gain access to his wife’s wear, she opened it and came across
scores of embroidered saris in an impressive wardrobe. Unable to resist the temptation
to find out how Mithya’s blouses would go on her, she wore one and as it was well-
suited, she wore a matching sari, and reached for the full-length mirror. While she sized
up herself in Mithya’s attire, she tried to envision Dhruva’s reaction, which gave her a
strange sense of fetishism, and drawn by the amazing collection of saris and dresses
lying in the cupboard, one by one, she pulled them out, and found at the bottom, a false
bottom. Gaining access to the secret shelf, and overawed by the exquisite jewelry lying
therein, in ornate boxes, she couldn’t stop wondering about the quality of the gems and
the beauty of the workmanship. And finding a framed picture of a young girl, who
seemed to be Mithya’s daughter, she could not help but compare it with her mother’s
life-size picture on the wall, and felt that both exuded a charm of their own.
When Raju informed her about Ranjit’s departure, she joined Dhruva in the study,
and he briefed her about Kavya’s affair with Pravar, at which she wondered at the ways
of life, and said that it could be awful for the husband. While Dhruva was at a loss as to
how to redeem himself by freeing Kavya from Pravar’s hold before she became his
crime-mate as well, she said that they should bring Natya into play to gauge Kavya’s
mind, and that would enable her to keep a vigil on Pravar, her own bête noir. Agreeing
that they should think of a ploy to bring Natya emotionally closer to her, they toyed with
many an idea before he came up with a plan involving Shakeel. When he was about to
ring up Shakeel, she said jocularly that he should summon an ambulance as well for the
cop might suffer a stroke by seeing her in his house; and patting her for her naughtiness,
he said that he would ask the cop to come in an ambulance itself.
When Shakeel came as promised, she received him in the portico as planned and
before the guest could recover from the shock of her presence, the host jolted him

further by introducing her as his assistant in a live-in. Leading Shakeel into the drawing
hall, Dhruva joked that it made sense that the cop made up with her as his future
admissions into 9, Castle Hills have to be only through the proper channel. When Radha
extended her hand to Shakeel saying that they better let bygones be bygones, Dhruva
goaded him to make a new beginning with his old suspect. Over drinks that they had
together, as she showed no traces of bitterness towards him, Shakeel began to feel at
ease, and when Dhruva stressed upon the need to involve her in pinning Pravar and laid
the blueprint to bring Radha and Natya together. Thereafter, ending up befriending her,
the cop left them wondering how his premonition about her coming closer to the
detective came true.
So, that day, when Natya was about to step out from the department stores in the
A.C. Guards; a woman constable picked her up for an alleged shoplifting and packed her
off to the lock-up of the Saifabad Police Station. Soon, Natya had Radha for company,
supposedly locked up for her road rage, and as Radha feigned to take Shakeel to task for
having booked her for nuts, impressed with her élan, Natya was drawn towards her.
When Radha was about to ring up Dhruva asking him to speak to Shakeel, Natya
pleaded with her to take up her case as well, and having been freed thereafter, Radha
led Natya to her Red Hills abode, kept under lock and key, and succeeded in cultivating
her young heart; as expected Natya spilled the beans on her wayward life and Radha not
only solicited her about the need to reform Pravar for her own good but also convinced
her about the need to keep him out of the loop as they together worked towards that
end, and the latter swore that she would act as directed.
Chapter 15
‘Untried’ Crime
That day as Dhruva was away with Shakeel and was not expected till late in the night,
Radha began scanning Mithya’s closets to delve deeper into her past. Not finding any
sleazy stuff therein, as she was about to give up on spying, she located a false bottom in
the dressing table that led her to many unusual items. Elated at the discovery as she
rummaged the shelf, she found Mithya’s jottings in a leather-bound book, leafing
through which, she came across a story-like entry, Untried Crime, which read thus:
That was when Mithya’s life was under siege; she faced the unwelcome prospect of
divorce, lo, owing to her own infidelity. Barely turned twenty-eight, as she was not for
losing the good things of life her well-heeled man afforded her, she began planning a
perfect murder of him and her paramour. So, leaving no lose ends for the cops to tie her
up to the killings, she made discreet enquiries about the Inspector of the Saifabad Police
Station, the one most likely to turn up for questioning her. What with his reputation as
an Ace of Crime Detection increasing her sense of challenge, she spied upon him in a
burka, and finding him manly and handsome, she fell for him. So, she kept track of him,
and struck by his élan and enamored of his mien, she even turned covetous, which give
an erotic edge to her criminal cunning.
That night, after seeing the end of both her men and having anonymously alerted the
police about the double murder, she expectantly waited for Dhruva to turn up at her
bungalow, the gates of which she deliberately kept ajar, and when he knocked at the
main door, she received him in lingerie.
“Sorry for my rather scanty cladding,” she said alluringly.
“I’m Inspector Dhruva,” he said unable to take his eyes off her hourglass frame.
“I’m Mithya,” she said coquettishly, extending her hand invitingly.
“Mrs. Ashok I suppose,” he said, grabbing it greedily.

“Yes, I’m Mithya Ashok,” she said leading him into the drawing room.
“Do you know the whereabouts of your husband?” he asked looking into her eyes.
“Why, he’s aboard the Godavari Express,” she said affecting concern.
“Are you sure about that?”
“You know I’m his wife, don’t you?”
“Can’t there be secrets between the spouses?”
“Have you come to know of any mistress of his or what?” she said mockingly.
“Maybe he would’ve been better off in her bed, if he had any but….”
“You mean, better off than in mine?” she said interrupting him
“I’ve to get into both to know about that,” he said naughtily, “but sadly he’s no
more.”
“In that case, can’t you imagine the possibilities?” she said winking at him.
“It’s no joke, he was possibly murdered,” he said observing her demeanor.
“You mean, in the running train!”
“No, it’s in your A.C Guards’ house.”
“Wonder how he landed there!” she said feigning surprise. “But who could have
killed him?”
“Who’s Dilip?”
“Has he killed him?”
“Better answer my question.”
“He’s my errand boy, don’t mind his age,” she said smilingly.
“Is that all?”
“I know privacy is the first victim in crime investigation, don’t I?” she said
coquettishly.
“Don’t mistake me, it’s a routine question.”
“Well, to tell you the truth, I am carrying on with him.”
“But I don’t think he’s of your class.”
“Why that should bother you at all?”
“Sorry but surely your man would’ve been concerned about that.”
“You are spot on,” she said taking his hand. “Know that I offered to divorce him.”
“Are you in love with Dilip?”
“Didn’t you hear me say that I am carrying on with him?”
“When did you last see him?”
“I was with him till ten.”
“Where it was?”
“Where Ashok was murdered that is going by your statement.”
“You mean that you three were there.”
“Are you implying a threesome or what?” she said laughingly.
“You know I am not privy to your sexual proclivities,” he said not to be outplayed at
his favorite game.
“Given a chance, I won’t withhold any from you,” she said not to be undone.
“You may keep that on hold and...”
“If you put me on hold, I can hang on in hope,” she said turning bold.
“Maybe by the rope,” he said mocking sympathy.

Prey on the prowl a crime novel

Prey on the prowl a crime novel

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